Hug monster You are right about what Cap 413 instructs. But not all call signs will have heard or understood the transmisions from the mayday A/C. Also you will find that some ATC officers have a poor understanding of English. ICAO procedures have not been sufficient in some situations. Also a lot confusion occures when communication is attempted between party's that English is not the first language. Listen to the Russians talk to the Spanish if you do'nt know what I mean. You will also find that ICAO works well in the UK and gets worse the further you fly southeast.
In the AUH incident the crew stuck to ICAO and found that things did not happen as advertised. The ATC officer became overloaded trying to explain why XYZ was getting priority to other A/C in a language that neither he nor they spoke well. Clearly things needed to improve. My Company now train their crews to prefix emergency calls the way I mentioned. Thas has resulted in no more confusion. As for your correction, I was merely keeping it short so that I did'nt have to type the full procedure. This is in fact "Pan Pan, Pan Pan, Pan Pan" or "Mayday Mayday Mayday" I asumed that we all knew the full call and I would not have to teach everyone to suck eggs. Thank you for your imput. If you only ever fly in the UK, ICAO works well. In my opinion we are lucky to have the best ATC in the World. I fly all over the globe and sadly the same cannot be said for a significant number of Countries. In the end it's all about getting the message across ie HELP. If you have to modify the phrase to achieve this then just do it. Was it Confucius who said " rules are for the blind obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men".
[This message has been edited by nohat (edited 22 April 2001).]